UIL targets Alamodome to host girls and boys state tournaments

The UIL girls and boys state basketball tournaments are expected to be played at the Alamodome next March.

A decision was announced Wednesday in Round Rock.

“The UIL Legislative Council gave UIL staff direction to seek an agreement to move the tournaments to the Alamodome for 2015 only,” UIL deputy director Jamey Harrison said in a text. “We have not entered into an agreement yet.”

Rick Sherley, executive director of the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches, said in a telephone interview that he received a text indicating that the tournaments were likely headed to the Alamodome.

“That’s great news to me,” said Sherley, who lives in the Houston area. “I’m coming from the same distance, and when San Antonio hosts something, they do a good job.”

A tentative schedule indicates that the girls tournament would be played March 5-7 and the boys from March 12-14.

“I’m excited about it,” said Antonian coach Charlie Boggess, a former TABC president. ”You know, what’s not to love about San Antonio?”

Boggess, a former coach at Alamo Heights, predicted in the June 4 editions of the San Antonio Express-News that the Alamodome would host the events.

He said he didn’t get any razzing or feedback from his peers about his comments.

“No, I think the word had pretty well gotten around,” he said.

Boggess offered another prediction on the day that the UIL made the official announcement. He said he thinks San Antonio will do well and that people will want to come back.

“You come here, and, people will love it,” said Boggess, who took 1988 and 1991 Alamo Heights teams to the state tournament in Austin. ”I think it’ll be the shot in the arm that we need to revive the crowds. We won’t have the same logistical problems.

“You know, every team’s goal is to get to Austin. (But) everybody will get over it once they come here. I think it’s going to be widely, widely accepted and I think people will love it.”

The boys tournament has been in Austin since 1921. The girls and boys tournaments have been staged at the Erwin Center on the University of Texas campus since 1978.

The move out of Austin stemmed from “difficulties in availability and affordability” of hotel rooms in the Austin area in recent years because of “concurrent events.”

Over the past few years, South by Southwest has skyrocketed in popularity in Austin.

The music, film and interactive extravaganza overlapped the boys state tournament weekend and was scheduled to do so again next March.

“Austin just has not been good the last several years, because you can’t get a room,” Sherley said. “So, something had to give. I’m a traditionalist. I’ve been coming to the state tournament since 1956. It’s kind of a traditional thing with me, but, something had to give (because) they had no where to put the teams.”

Note: A previous version of this report gave incorrect attribution to a comment in regard to the UIL Legislative Council decision.